This trailer is for a short film that premiered at the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival. A Tax on Bunny Rabbits is all text animation. No bunnies were harmed in the making of this film.

A fun RSA style spot for the Scotiabank website. One of five from the last campaign I worked on in my capacity as a staff director for Global Mechanic Media. This was a great series of spots to wrap up almost a decade of work with that studio. Global Mechanic is a creative hub in Vancouver producing live action, animation and digital work.. and they just happen to be great people too!

Directed By: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Producer: Betty Wharton
Animation: Yumiko Sasawa, Teresa Johnston, Cesare Battista, Michael Mann, Simon Piniel

This commercial for converse chuck taylor shoes was created along with the converse sky ad. The approach was to play with swirling animated mandala patterns for this spot and I love the way it turned out. This ad was done in a hybrid stop-motion style and composited in After Effects. I shot several rotations of a pair of converse and then remixed and recombined them into these mandala forms.

I used expressions to drive the patterns and just watching some of the footage preview as I was working on it was a mesmerizing trip.

A simple shoe becomes a kaleidascopic extravaganza!

A 30 second TV spot for the BC Lotto Corporation. This commercial has balls!

Directed By: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Producer: Tina Oulette
Animation: Simon Piniel, Nathaniel Akin

It’s that time of year again, time to cuddle down in a cozy chair with some cross stitch, an elf and a riot cop. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a fantastic New Year to all of you!

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You love Bacon Cheeseburgers. You also love Pizza.

I love animating text. I also love pizza.

Directed By: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Producer: Betty Wharton
Animation: Sarah Clark, Nathaniel Akin

This online campaign for Silk soy milk is a first to use deep linked annotations at YouTube to create interactive animation on a branded page. The 10 different question and answer animation sequences address urban myths, each in a different style. Developing the style and stories for each was a very fun rapid process. The Silk Canada page can be found here.

Eating turkey makes you sleepy?

Directed By: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Producer: Betty Wharton
Animation: Michael Mann, Nathaniel Akin, Justin Longoz, François-Marc Baillet and Anik Rosenblum

A business that encourages you to use less of it’s product? Yes, really.

This is a web and TV advert for the BC Hydro PowerSmart initiative to show customers ways to be smart about how they use electricity. Just clean text animation, clear visuals and a music track. Sometimes simple is best.

Directed By: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Producer: Betty Wharton
Animation: Ian Vincent Godfrey

It’s only cannibalism if a waffle eats another waffle. Human eats waffle is just the food chain in action, even if it’s a singing dancing waffle.

Directed By: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Producer: Betty Wharton
Animation: Ken Meyer, Nathaniel Akin

This converse commercial is pop-tastic and slightly psychedelic. Little colored dots swirl and bop in a cloudy sky and then bloom into a flower pattern forming a classic Chuck Taylor sneak. The design and animation on this spot was done by Celest Brown and is inspired by the fabric pattern on a pair of the featured shoes. This spot was created at global mechanic along with the Converse Mandala commercial.

Ahh.... Puffy clouds, blue skies and flowers..

credits:

Director: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Executive Producer: Matthew Charde
Design & Animation: Celest Brown
Agency: Butler Schine